


Home

by sarai377



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Platonic 2B/9S
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 16:38:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12085023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarai377/pseuds/sarai377
Summary: He shouldn't have come back so soon - but she's glad he did.He breathes, rhythmically - and there's that sound again. A whimper. That is the only word she can think of to describe it.9S is remembering. Dreaming, Pod 042 provides.Platonic 2B/9S. A reaction, of sorts, to the Adam cutscene from Route A.





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still on my first playthrough of Nier:Automata (currently about a third of the way through Route B), and haven't played the other game(s) in the series yet. I just had to write something for these two. I've taken a lot of liberties with android technology (and I'm probably ignoring/skewing some of the plot as well). I'd ask that you please don't tell me if I've gotten something wrong - I'm trying to avoid spoilers!

2B hears something. It wakes her instantly, coming off standby and going to alert mode. 

Another attack, perhaps? Or something a lot worse... After 9S's return, she has been extra vigilant. They've seen a lot of unimaginable things already, and she has this feeling in the pit of her stomach that the worst is yet to come. 

She launches up to standing, focusing her attention around her. Their private room is dim and still, no air movement. No movement, except for her companion - 9S lies in a strange curled position, knees drawn up to his chest, barely breathing, recharging. 

_Pod_ , she beckons, and turns toward the door. A display appears in a compartment of her mind, showing everything and everyone within a quarter-kilometer radius of her body. The camp is quiet. Most of the resistance members are recharging - they run on a diurnal schedule to take advantage of the sunlight. If there were something happening outside the room, others would be waking, hearing it as well. 

2B cocks her head, sharpening her senses. 

And there it is again, that sound, coming from behind her - unrecognized but, somehow, familiar. It sets her heart racing and her stomach twisting. She turns. 

The sound hasn't woken 9S. He is normally so attuned to her that she is expecting him to sit up and ask if she is alright. But he doesn't stir - well, that's not quite true. He curls tighter, ducking his face into his knees. 

_Pod?_  she asks, and draws her sword from the invisible sheath at her back. It clears with a soft whisper of sound. 

_Analysis..._ the pod answers. It takes a few nanoseconds, and then the answer:  _It is coming from 9S_. 

_9S..._ That is why it sounds so familiar. 2B has heard far too much of his voice in the last few weeks. Too much, and, strangely, too little, especially when she didn't know what had happened to him after that battle over the water. 

2B releases the sword - whatever is causing that noise can't be resolved with a weapon - and pads over to his bed. She kneels beside the cot, studying him, expecting him to speak. 

Perhaps he is still repairing himself, and has made a subconscious decision not to wake unless her signals align to danger. He didn't admit it to her, but she knows he left early, before all his repairs were finalized. It was stupid, but brave. She enhances her dark-vision, watching as he breathes - and he makes that noise again. 

She can't see his eyes. They all wear black across their features, all YoRHa androids, and even in rest they maintain appropriate attire. But she now sees his agony, twisting the lines of his face, pinching his mouth. She knows not what causes this - if it is a side effect of coming down here and rescuing her before he was completely repaired, or if it is more indirect. He shouldn't have come back so soon - but she's glad he did. 

He breathes, rhythmically - and there's that sound again. A whimper. That is the only word she can think of to describe it. 

_9S is remembering. Dreaming_ , Pod 042 provides. 

When the first androids were created, the humans worked hard to make them in their image. They gave androids dreams, a way to analyze themselves while on standby. 2B supposes with everything they have been through, 9S has good reason to activate his dreaming sequence. He's always been more aware of his choices than any android has a right to be. 

_Show me_. 

It is not forbidden to experience another android's dreams, but 2B still feels a twinge of... something. Guilt, perhaps? 

And then she is plunged into the memory. 

It is filled with pain - it coats every sense like a layer of grime and dirt. 2B grits her teeth and presses deeper. 9S, damaged by the EMP blast that had scattered him and the rest of the YoRHa androids, stands defiant in a world the color of bleached bones. 

A beautiful face with pale hair, and glasses, and a sickly grin, appears. Adam. Mocking, laughing, hefts a hardened spear at 9S, who dodges. 

"Would you like to play?" Adam asks. 

9S dodges the hardened matter flung at him, again and again, until one of them catches him in the hip. Pinned in place, he fights against it, almost pulls himself free - and then another spear catches his hand. 

In the dim room, 9S makes that noise again. 2B's hands are tightened into fists where she kneels, but her mind is far away, experiencing what 9S is forcing himself to relive. 

In the dream, it's over. 9S struggles, but he can't dodge now. Another, and another, those spears capture him, holding him in place, until he dangles from them, spent, captured. 

Too easy. 

2B burns with something razor-edged and fracturing as 9S stops fighting. 

"Tell me, little android, do you think she will come for you?" Adam laughs, delighted, face flushed as if he's been exerting himself - or _enjoying_ himself. Another gray-white beam plunges through 9S's torso, and he gasps. Adam touches his cheek, tenderly, a graceful caress at odds with the sharp pain. "I certainly hope so. You are not as strong as I expected." Disappointment moves through Adam's tone, and in the haze, 9S takes that to heart. 

9S's vision is gray and flickering, sensors overloaded with the pain, but he doesn't detach from it. _He... can't_ , 2B realizes. He fused his sensors together, every last one of them, to make room for other enhancements. He's trapped in this pain, and reliving it, working through the episode again and again. 

Adam toys with him for too long, and then closes 9S into darkness. He struggles against the rods forced through his body, but eventually has to stop. He hangs, agonized, and waits for 2B to rescue him. 

There was nothing he could have done to stop it. Adam was so strong -  _she_ barely survived that confrontation. Only Adam's desire to experience death let her win. But it doesn't mean that 9S was weak. Seeing this dream, this nightmare, only makes her think him stronger. 

9S is strong, in a different way than 2B. He makes her think about her actions. He contemplates things that he probably shouldn't, but she's grown used to it. Everything is sharper and brighter when he is with her. 

2B stays in the dream until he is released from that prison, until her dream-form rushes to him and gathers him into her arms.  _"Let's go home_ ," she says to him, and he smiles. 

Home... The word slips so naturally from her own lips. Home. 

2B disengages from the dream as it fractures and reforms, back to the beginning. 

The floor feels hard and gritty beneath her knees. A memory of her own surfaces, grim and dark and sharp-edged. 9S, teeth clenched tight, body pierced through with pure matter from Adam's power, refusing to cry out as Adam taunts her - taunts 2B - with him. 

Home. 

The rage boils up inside of her, momentarily turning her vision red, and then it snaps, and transmutes itself into something else. 

2B stands, and sits on 9S's cot, inches from his curled knees. 

_Why?_ Part of her questions.  _He's just your support. There's nothing exceptional about him._

Oh, but there  _is_. He's talkative and quite compassionate, and 9S has... personality. Even when they rescued that young machine from the desert, he was compassionate and helpful. She'd enjoyed watching him squirm under the girl's probing questions... There is something much stronger than 2B in him, and she needs him to know this. 

She touches his hair.

9S jerks, suddenly alert under her hand. He catches her wrist, but doesn't pull it off. 

"Ah?" he says. "2B..." He sounds relieved, and at the same time, agitated. "Can I... help you with something?"

"No." She shakes her head. This is something she has to do herself. "You were making noises. I wanted to stop them."

"Oh," 9S says. "My apologies, I didn't know. I... it was was just a dream." 

"Don't apologize," she says. 

He uncurls, and sits up, their legs almost touching on the side of the cot. She keeps her hand on his head, and he doesn't ask her to move it. His hair is unexpectedly soft. The texture and warmth communicate through the glove, different from her own even though it is the same product. 

"That was not a dream," she says. "It was a nightmare. You don't have to relive it. There's nothing you could have done differently." 

"W-what?" He's staring at her, she knows it, even through the fabric. 

2B turns. "He's dead, and he's not coming back. You won't have to face him again." 

"There were two of them," 9S says, his voice too soft. 

"I'll protect you," 2B says, and bumps her knees against his. She takes his hand, twining their fingers together. "And you've got my back. We'll destroy anything that comes for us." 

He ducks his head, and squeezes their fingers together. "If you say so..." 

"I do." She nods. "Let's go home... Nines." 

It doesn't - shouldn't - make sense. But 9S beams at her, understanding her completely. There are a thousand burning butterflies trapped inside her chest at that expression. 

She smiles back, hesitant, unfamiliar. 

When he lays back down, she slides in behind him, curling together like stacked spoons. Her arm goes around his body, holding him close until he returns to standby. 

Floating above their heads, their Pods communicate in a silent dialogue, code flying back and forth. 

_Welcome home_ , Pod 153 says. 

9S smiles in his sleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> I see 2B and 9S's relationship as strictly platonic, at least for now. I am still in the midst of my first play-through so I ask that you please don't point out anything I've gotten wrong (at least with the mechanics of the world)... Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
